A Guide to U.S. Military Casualty Statistics: Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, Operation Inherent Resolve, Operation New Dawn, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom

This report presents statistics regarding U.S. military and civilian casualties in the active missions Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS, Afghanistan) and Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR, Iraq and Syria) and, as well as operations that have ended, Operation New Dawn (OND, Iraq), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF, Iraq), and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF, Afghanistan). It also includes statistics on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and amputations. Some of these statistics are publicly available at the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) website and others have been obtained through DOD experts.

For more information on pre-2000 casualties, see CRS Report RL32492, American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics, by Nese F. DeBruyne and Anne Leland.

This report will be updated as needed.

A Guide to U.S. Military Casualty Statistics: Operation Freedom's Sentinel, Operation Inherent Resolve, Operation New Dawn, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom

August 7, 2015 (RS22452)

Contents

Summary

This report presents statistics regarding U.S. military and civilian casualties in the active missions Operation Freedom's Sentinel (OFS, Afghanistan) and Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR, Iraq and Syria) and, as well as operations that have ended, Operation New Dawn (OND, Iraq), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF, Iraq), and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF, Afghanistan). It also includes statistics on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and amputations. Some of these statistics are publicly available at the Department of Defense's (DOD's) website and others have been obtained through DOD experts.

For more information on pre-2000 casualties, see CRS Report RL32492, American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics, by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed].

This report will be updated as needed.


A Guide to U.S. Military Casualty Statistics: Operation Freedom's Sentinel, Operation Inherent Resolve, Operation New Dawn, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom

Overall Casualties in OIR, OIF, OND, OEF, and OFS

Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) began on October 7, 2001, and was primarily conducted in Afghanistan. On December 28, 2014, President Obama announced that OEF had ended.1 A "follow-on mission," Operation Freedom's Sentinel (OFS), was started on January 1, 2015, to "continue training, advising, and assisting Afghan security forces."2

Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) began on March 19, 2003, and was primarily conducted in Iraq. On August 31, 2010, President Obama announced that OIF had ended.3 A transitional force of U.S. troops remained in Iraq under Operation New Dawn (OND), which ended on December 15, 2011.4 Several thousand U.S. civilian personnel, contract personnel, and a limited number of U.S. military personnel remain in Iraq carrying out U.S. government business and cooperative programs under the auspices of agreements with the Iraqi government. On October 15, 2014, U.S. Central Command designated new military operations in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR).5 (For more information on war and conflict dates, see CRS Report RS21405, U.S. Periods of War and Dates of Recent Conflicts, by [author name scrubbed].)

Daily updates of total U.S. military and civilian casualties in OIF, OEF, OND, OIR, and OFS can be found at the Department of Defense's (DOD's) website, at http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf. Table 1 gives the overall casualties in OIF, OND, and OEF.

Table 1. Overall Casualties in OIF, OND, and OEF, October 7, 2001- July 28, 2015

 

Deaths (Hostile and Non-Hostile)

Wounded in Action

Operation Iraqi Freedom

4,424

31,951

Operation Enduring Freedom

2,355

20,071

Operation New Dawn

66

295

Operation Inherent Resolve

7

1

Operation Freedom's Sentinel

3

33

Source: Table compiled by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) using fatality tables from the Department of Defense (DOD), as of July 28, 2015, at http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The U.S. Army Office of the Surgeon General (OSG), using the Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS), provided data on the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases. According to Dr. Michael Carino of the OSG, a case of PTSD is defined as an individual with two or more outpatient visits or one or more hospitalizations during which PTSD was diagnosed. The threshold of two or more outpatient visits is used in the DMSS to increase the likelihood that the individual has, or had, clinically diagnosable PTSD. A single visit on record commonly reflects a servicemember who was evaluated for possible PTSD, but did not actually meet the criteria for clinical diagnosis.

In this data set, an incident of PTSD among deployed servicemembers is defined as occurring when a deployed servicemember was diagnosed with PTSD at least 30 days after being deployed.6

Table 2. Annual New Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Diagnoses in All Services,
2000- June 5, 2015

Year

Incident Cases
(Not Previously Deployed)

Incident Cases Among OEF/OFS/OIF/OND/OIR Deployed

2000

1,612

2001

1,705

2002

1,749

90

2003

1,746

978

2004

2,145

3,566

2005

2,298

6,688

2006

2,145

7,570

2007

2,596

11,609

2008

2,883

14,322

2009

2,975

13,984

2010

2,984

14,839

2011

3,135

16,024

2012

3,244

17,773

2013

3,414

14,452

2014

3,442

12,570

2015 (partial year)

1,191

3,732

Total

39,264

138,197

Source: CRS communication with Dr. Michael Carino, Army Office of the Surgeon General, June 25, 2015. Data from Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS).

Notes: "Deployed" incident cases indicate a deployment to OEF/OFS/OIF/OND/OIR for longer than 30 days at the time of PTSD diagnosis. Also, the 2015 data are for a partial year. These data are identical to the data in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Annual Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Diagnoses in All Services,
2000-June 5, 2015

Source: CRS communication with Dr. Michael Carino, Army Office of the Surgeon General, June 25, 2015. Data from Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS).

Notes: Deployed servicemembers have been deployed to OEF/OFS/OIF/OND/OIR for longer than 30 days at the time of PTSD diagnosis. The 2015 data are for a partial year and are not to be compared to the other bars that describe a full year. These data are identical to the data in Table 2.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Many statistics on traumatic brain injury (TBI) are available to the public, at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, at http://dvbic.dcoe.mil/dod-worldwide-numbers-tbi. Unlike PTSD numbers, which are segmented by those deployed and those not previously deployed, TBI numbers represent medical diagnoses of TBI that occurred anywhere U.S. forces are located, including the continental United States.7

Table 3. Traumatic Brain Injury Incidents by Classification, Deployed and Non-Deployed Combined, 2000-2015 Q1

(as of June 5, 2015)

Year

Penetrating or Severe

Moderate

Mild

Not Classifiable

Total

2000

455

1,625

7,177

1,701

10,958

2001

478

1,686

8,298

1,157

11,619

2002

396

1,455

9,636

920

12,407

2003

458

1,441

10,265

651

12,815

2004

522

1,591

11,916

439

14,468

2005

515

1,645

12,881

489

15,530

2006

563

1,667

14,506

300

17,036

2007

649

2,300

19,805

464

23,218

2008

735

2,028

23,067

2,708

28,538

2009

863

1,971

24,044

2,080

28,958

2010

603

1,965

25,280

1,594

29,442

2011

787

2,018

27,464

2,638

32,907

2012

526

1,887

26,172

2,216

30,801

2013

382

1,995

23,073

2,196

27,646

2014

303

2,010

20,972

1,759

25,044

2015 Q1

52

444

5,024

392

5,912

Total

8,287

27,728

269,580

21,704

327,299

Source: CRS communication with Dr. Michael Carino, Army Office of the Surgeon General, June 25, 2015. Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS), Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, http://www.dvbic.org/dod-worldwide-numbers-tbi.

Notes: The 2015 data are for a partial year. These data are identical to the data in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Traumatic Brain Injury Incident Cases, Deployed and Non-Deployed Combined, 2000-2015 Q1

(as of June 5, 2015)

Source: CRS communication with Dr. Michael Carino, Army Office of the Surgeon General, June 25, 2015. Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS), Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, http://www.dvbic.org/dod-worldwide-numbers-tbi.

Notes: The 2015 data are for a partial year and are not to be compared to the other bars that describe a full year. These data are identical to the data in Table 3.

Major Limb Amputations8

Table 4 shows the number of individuals with battle-injury major limb amputations for OEF, OFS, OIF, OND, and OIR. A major limb amputation includes the loss of one or more limbs, the loss of one or more partial limbs, or the loss of one or more full or partial hand or foot. The total number of individuals with major limb amputations as of June 1, 2015, is 1,645.

Table 4. Individuals with Battle-Injury Major Limb Amputations for OEF, OFS, OIF, OND, and OIR, October 7, 2001-June 1, 2015

Year

OEF & OFS

OIF, OND, OIR

Total

2001

1

1

2002

1

1

2003

9

71

80

2004

6

152

158

2005

17

147

164

2006

9

147

156

2007

16

197

213

2008

30

67

97

2009

67

24

91

2010

207

2

209

2011

257

3

260

2012

154

1

155

2013

39

39

2014

15

1

16

2015 (partial year)

5

5

Total

833

812

1,645

Source: CRS communication with Dr. Michael Carino, Army Office of the Surgeon General, June 25, 2015.

Notes: The 2015 data are for a partial year. These data are identical to the data in Figure 3.

Figure 3 charts the number of major limb amputations due to a battle injury in OIF, OND, OIR, OEF, and OFS from 2001 through June 1, 2015, for all services.

Figure 3. Individuals with Major Limb Amputations Due to Battle Injuries
in OIF, OND, OIR, OEF, and OFS, October 7, 2001-June 1, 2015

Source: CRS communication with Dr. Michael J. Carino, Army Office of the Surgeon General, June 25, 2015. Data from DOD-VA Extremity Trauma & Amputation Center of Excellence (EACE).

Notes: The 2015 data are for a partial year and are not to be compared to the other bars that describe a full year. These data are identical to the data in Table 4.

Other Available Data: Demographic Data on Casualties

DOD provides data on the demographics of servicemembers who have died or been wounded in action in OIF, OND, and OEF through the Defense Casualty Analysis System at https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/pages/casualties.xhtml. To find this information, select a conflict and select between "deaths" or "wounded in action," and then select from the demographic categories, including gender, age, race, and ethnicity. Similar data have not yet been publically released for OEF and OIR.

Footnotes

1.

The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, "Statement by the President on the End of the Combat Mission in Afghanistan," December 28, 2014, at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/28/statement-president-end-combat-mission-afghanistan.

2.

Department of Defense, "Statement by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom's Sentinel," December 28, 2014, at http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=17091.

3.

The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, "Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on the End of Combat Operations in Iraq," August 31, 2010, at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/08/31/remarks-president-address-nation-end-combat-operations-iraq.

4.

Remarks by the President and First Lady on the End of the War in Iraq, December 14, 2011, at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/14/remarks-president-and-first-lady-end-war-iraq.

5.

U.S. Department of Defense, "Centcom Designates Ops Against ISIL as 'Inherent Resolve'," October 15, 2014, at http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=123422&source=GovDelivery.

6.

CRS communication with Department of Defense, Office of the Secretary of Defense liaison, September 21, 2010.

7.

Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, at http://www.dvbic.org/dod-worldwide-numbers-tbi. The DOD categorizes TBI cases as mild, moderate, severe, or penetrating. Mild TBI is characterized by a confused or disoriented state lasting less than 24 hours; loss of consciousness for up to 30 minutes; memory loss lasting less than 24 hours; and structural brain imaging that yields normal results. Moderate TBI is characterized by a confused or disoriented state that lasts more than 24 hours; loss of consciousness for more than 30 minutes, but less than 24 hours; memory loss lasting greater than 24 hours but less than seven days; and structural brain imaging yielding normal or abnormal results. Severe TBI is characterized by a confused or disoriented state that lasts more than 24 hours; loss of consciousness for more than 24 hours; memory loss for more than seven days; and structural brain imaging yielding normal or abnormal results. A penetrating TBI, or open head injury, is a head injury in which the dura mater, the outer layer of the system of membranes that envelops the central nervous system, is penetrated. Penetrating injuries can be caused by high-velocity projectiles or objects of lower velocity, such as knives, or bone fragments from a skull fracture that are driven into the brain. "Not Classifiable" indicates additional incident information is required prior to TBI categorization.

8.

A previous update of this report included major and minor limb amputations. However, statistics on minor limb amputations were not available for this update.